Cleveland Cavaliers: 5 keys to beating the Warriors in the 2017 NBA Finals
5. Dominating the offensive glass
Through their first 13 playoff games, crashing the offensive glass hasn’t been a huge part of Cleveland’s success. When you’re blowing people out by 40 in the conference finals, second chance opportunities don’t really need to be a point of emphasis.
Against the Warriors, however, the Cavs’ best hope of countering all those small-ball Lineups of Death is to use LeBron, Kevin Love and especially Tristan Thompson to bully their opponents on the boards, pull down offensive rebounds and earn second chance opportunities.
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So far in the playoffs, Cleveland is averaging only 8.3 rebounds per game (10th among all playoff teams) and their offensive rebounding percentage (22.6 percent) is only marginally better than Golden State’s (20.1 percent).
However, even with the Warriors averaging the second-most rebounds per game among all playoff teams during their perfect 12-0 start, the Cavs hauled in 11.7 offensive rebounds leading to 16.3 second chance opportunities in last year’s championship series against the Dubs.
As the top-ranked offense in the playoffs and the third-ranked offense from the regular season, Cleveland’s best method for finding weaknesses in Golden State’s mighty defense is to get extra cracks at it. For a heavy three-point shooting team, tracking down those long rebounds could be key in overcoming the Warriors’ stingy defense.
Kevin Durant, David West, Zaza Pachulia and JaVale McGee will help the Warriors in that regard, but Cleveland pulling down offensive boards with Thompson, who specializes in this kind of dirty work, could demoralize a heavily favored team that will start to feel the pressure if the Cavs start turning those extra chances into backbreaking buckets.